May is Mental Health Awareness Month—a great reminder to pause and reflect on your own wellbeing, and check-in on those around you. Be it anxiety, depression, burnout, or just a general malaise, it’s important to stay intentional and proactive about nurturing a healthy mind.
These 10 mental health books offer guidance and tips for cultivating inner peace, lasting joy, and emotional comfort.
Taming the Molecule of More: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Dopamine Work for You
By Michael Long
Dopamine, “the molecule of more,” is the chemical in our brains that drives us to seek out newer and better things—the latest gadget, the coolest job, the perfect partner. But for many of us, it’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of never being truly satisfied. Because dopamine can only promise happiness. It can never deliver. That part is up to us. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Michael Long, or View on Amazon
Healing the Modern Brain: Nine Tenets to Build Mental Fitness and Revitalize Your Mind
By Drew Ramsey
This essential guide explores the ten tenets vital to cultivating Mental Fitness and provides direct, actionable techniques to improve brain function and emotional health. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Drew Ramsey, or View on Amazon
Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance
By Laura Delano
The powerful memoir of one woman’s experience with psychiatric diagnoses and medications, and her journey to discover herself outside the mental health industry. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Laura Delano, or View on Amazon
Ordinary Magic: The Science of How We Can Achieve Big Change with Small Acts
By Gregory Walton
Discover simple psychological shifts that build trust, belonging, and confidence—from the co-director of the Dweck-Walton Lab at Stanford University. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Gregory Walton, or View on Amazon
The Narrowing: A Journey Through Anxiety and the Body
By Alexandra Shaker
An exploration of the connection between anxiety and the body by a clinical psychologist, drawing from the latest research as well as historical and cultural insights through time, arguing that only through understanding anxiety’s role in our lives can we transform it into resilience. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Alexandra Shaker, or View on Amazon
Validation: How the Skill Set That Revolutionized Psychology Will Transform Your Relationships, Increase Your Influence, and Change Your Life
By Caroline Fleck
How the science of seeing and being seen is the key to inner and interpersonal transformation. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Caroline Fleck, or View on Amazon
How to Love Better: The Path to Deeper Connection Through Growth, Kindness, and Compassion
By Yung Pueblo
Love enters our lives in many forms: friends, family, intimate partners. But all of these relationships are deeply influenced by the love we have for ourselves. If we see our relationships as opportunities to be fully present in our healing and growth, then, Yung Pueblo assures us, we can transform and meet one another with compassion instead of judgment. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Yung Pueblo, or View on Amazon
How Do You Feel?: One Doctor’s Search for Humanity in Medicine
By Jessi Gold
A poignant and thought-provoking memoir following one psychiatrist and four of her patients as they deal with the unspoken mental and physical costs of caring for others. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Jessi Gold, or View on Amazon
The Grief Cure: Looking for the End of Loss
By Cody Delistraty
In this lyrical and moving story of the world of Prolonged Grief, journalist Cody Delistraty reflects on his experience with loss and explores what modern science, history, and literature reveal about the nature of our relationship to grief and our changing attitudes toward its cure. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Cody Delistraty, or View on Amazon
How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists
By Ellen Hendriksen
Are you your own toughest critic? Learn to be good to yourself with this clear and compassionate guide. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Ellen Hendriksen, or View on Amazon
The Key Ideas in 15 Minutes
“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books,” Roald Dahl once famously said. The only trouble is, reading even one book from cover to cover takes hours—and you may not have many hours to spare.
But imagine for a moment: What if you could read a groundbreaking new book every day? Or even better, what if you could invite a world-renowned thinker into your earbuds, where they personally describe the 5 key takeaways from their work in just 15 minutes?
With the Next Big Idea App, we’ve turned this fantasy into a reality. We partnered with hundreds of acclaimed authors to create “Book Bites,” short audio summaries of the latest nonfiction that are prepared and read aloud by the authors themselves. Discover cutting-edge leadership skills, productivity hacks, the science of happiness and well-being, and much more—all in the time it takes to drive to work or walk the dog.
Go Deeper with a Next Big Idea Club Membership
The Next Big Idea App is free for anyone to try—and if you love it, we invite you to become an official member of the Next Big Idea Club. Membership grants you unlimited access to Book Bites and unlocks early-release, ad-free episodes of our LinkedIn-partnered podcast. You also gain entry to our private online discussion group, where you can talk big ideas with fellow club members and join exclusive live Q&A sessions with featured authors.
For a more focused learning experience, we recommend a Hardcover or eBook Membership. Every few months, legendary authors and club curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink select two new nonfiction books as the must-reads of the season. We then send hardcover copies straight to your doorstep, or eBook versions to your favorite digital device. We also collaborate with the authors of selected books to produce original reading guides and premium video e-courses, 50-minute master classes that take you step by step through their most life-changing ideas. And yes, it’s all available through the Next Big Idea App.
Learn Faster, from the World’s Leading Thinkers
Whether you prefer to read, listen, or watch, the Next Big Idea is here to help you work smarter and live better. Wake up with an always-fresh Idea of the Day, the perfect shot of inspiration to go with your morning coffee. Then dive into one of our Challenges, hand-picked collections of Book Bites that form crash courses in subjects like communication, motivation, and career acceleration. Later, watch the playback of an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, or philosopher John Kaag. And be sure to check the “Events” tab in the app, so that you can join an upcoming live Q&A and personally chat with the next featured thought leader.
If you’re hoping to grow as a person or as a professional, we hope you’ll join us and tens of thousands of others who enjoy the Next Big Idea. Get started by downloading the app today!
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